The last Mates in Argentina

Heading to the North of Argentina from Paraguay we had our first good surprise and had to stay one full day in Resistencia, in the region of the Chacos (one of the poorest provinces in Argentina), since we lost the bus at 8 a.m. The surprise was to know that this is South American capital of sculptures.  The city itself is full of monuments everywhere you look  to and it hosts the biannual “Bienal of Sculptures”. We had the opportunity to visit the place and can say that is just lovely.

After Resistencia we took the night bus to Tucumán where we had a contact on couchsurfing and went directly to the address informed. We spent 4 days with the most amazing family we could ever met. Dani, our contact, lives in the up floor of her parent´s house. The family is a very typical Argentinian family where the follow topics would never be off the table: Argentinian football, Maradona, Politics and the amazing country. Oh and almost forgetting the huge amount of delicious food served (please do not lose the Empanadas from Tucuman, and also Napolitanas). The city is the birthplace of Argentina, where the Indepencia was declared and the Casa de La Independencia is a place to be visited if you´re in town. There´s also a famous Christ to visited at the top of a Cerro where Francisco improved his skills on serving and preparing the Mate.  We left the city with strong feelings for the family that hosted us and was kind of hard to say goodbye. Anyway.

Cafayate was our next stop and just getting in town we met German a friend from Buenos Aires and we all stayed in a same hostel with a very nice garden outside. Cafayate is a small and charming Pueblo and we in the first day we took a tour through the Quebrada. Amazing views that cannot be captured in the follow photos.  Since Paulo was sick Murta had the mission to go with German to a very close and beautiful Waterfall.

Don’t forget trying the famous Locro, typical of the region.

From Cafayate we went to Salta where we stayed in another hostel still traveling with our friend from Buenos Aires and with a sick Paulo almost dying of fever. We walked around town and at night went out in a region full of bars and clubs. Once we were a little bit sick of big cities we stayed there for only 2 nights and went to Tilcara.

In Tilcara, another small and charming Pueblo, we met our friends from Salta (German from Buenos Aires and Julien from France) and together with other nice people from the hostel we made an asado at night.  In the next day we made a trekking to a Waterfall surrounded by stupendous views and mountains.

After Tilcara we went to Humahuaca the last Pueblo from this region called Quebrada de Humahuaca. This one has nothing in especial and we spent just one night there before going to our next country destination: Bolivia.

Para que!? Paraguay!

First hour in Paraguay was not what we expected ahaha. We crossed the border illegally and only noticed it in the bus terminal. We had to go back to the other side of the bridge, ask for a Brazilian stamp and them a Paraguayan stamp. This was done in a completely different environment than Foz do Iguaçu, here: more traffic, more mess, poorer. Economically speaking, Ciudad del Leste is a very important city in Paraguay, mostly because of its trade going on everywhere. Brazilian and Argentineans cross the border seeking for cheap technologic products, clothes or everything that could be bought for a good price when comparing to other countries. Paraguay has very low importation tariffs which turns the city into a Meca of shopping.

We took the bus to Encarnación, a small city that has the Jesuits´ ruins as its main touristic sight. We are so lucky that had the opportunity to see this ruins with local Paraguayans, one law professor and one tourist guide, so we ended up learning a lot from them. These ruins were built in 1706 by indigenous people that served the Jesuits. A lot of people claim they were slaves but others argue that Jesuits helped them to maintain their own culture, meaning that they worked for them but let them keep their language (Guarani – which is together with Spanish an official language and more talked in the streets) and taught them how to adapt/integrate the occidental society that Spanishs were bringing. The Jesuits did not last for long time (about 60 years) because they became a threat for the Spanish as having a lot of influence over the Indigenous.

In Asuncion, we were first surprised by the amount of the private and public security guards carrying big weapons in Plazas and in front of financial institutions. Despite all this we felt very safe walking around the city even though we had the biggest shantytown just behind the hostel where we were staying. The city has countless charming old houses and buildings, most of them decayed or in process of restoration.

Paraguay resulted to be such a different country that is hard to describe it in one post. They were the most developed country until 1864 when Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay financed by England committed a genocide killing about 300.000 Paraguayans in the called War of the Triple Alliance. Paraguay lost 26% of its territory in this war. It turned the country so down that today is considered, after Bolivia, the second poorest country in Latin America.

Our stay there was quick but we could see a very rural country, full of beautiful green sights that seem to be very natural and explored (the región of the Chacos up to the north still has indigenous tribes and a non-touristic Pantanal). However, we felt something weird there, unlike its neighbors Argentina and Brazil, Paraguayans are less friendly, shy and look less happy. People there are not helpful; it looked like they didn’t know anything about the city, “where is the center? or “ where are the museums?” were two questions that we asked several times without a proper answer. Our impression is that they are still recovering from many years of dictatorship and still a close country, without a tourism industry. Of course there are exceptions, while we were walking in the municipality market we stopped for a quick lunch (with mandioca) and had the opportunity to listen some local folkloric music.

We left the country with mix feelings. Is a country that is worth to be visited because it has history, has a lot of places to go (we missed the Chacos region) and has the indigenous people. But we don’t see ourselves living here.